Friday, February 28, 2014 - 11:00 AM

There's a notion that likely sprang from 4Chan back in the day (circa mid 2000's, that is. That's back in the day on the internet) known as "rule 34." Rule 34 states that if something exists on the internet, no matter how sacred or innocent, there is porn based on it. This morning I have created a rule that functions similarly. Let's call it Goldman's Law of Lazy Jokes: if it exists, there will eventually be a parody twitter account for it.

You may be wondering why I thought to write about this at all. Yesterday, we released an episode of the TLDR podcast about a couple of people who are trying to debunk viral hoaxes on the internet. It's an admirable pursuit, but doesn't really lend itself to comedy. Which is why I was so surprised to see a tweet on our timeline last night from an account that parodied debunkers. The account, "Brum Truth Sleuth" devotes itself to jokingly verifying or debunking tweets, mostly ones about Birmingham, England.

It’s currently 14:52 on Weds 6/2 in both. Fake. RT @dyst0pian: evening in Birmingham, and Friday in Manchester again.

So there you have it. Goldman's Law of Lazy Jokes in action. Expect to see parody twitter accounts in the near future for all kinds of things; a twerking butt, a single shoe in a puddle, a USB key, a Gutenberg bible, a dirty colander, me, you, everything. I mean, it's the law.